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This year’s vaccine has been 36% effective against viruses that have made for a particularly trying flu season––but some age groups are receiving “no statistically significant protection,” according to interim estimates released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Vaccine…

In a late-stage study, a combination of experimental drugs—encorafenib and binimetinib (Array BioPharma, Inc.)—kept patients with advanced melanoma associated with a common gene mutation alive for nearly three years and twice as long as rival medicine vemurafenib (Zelboraf, Roche), according to…

A scientific analysis found stronger evidence that compounds in kratom have opioid properties, according to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, who added that the agency has now received 44 reports of deaths linked to the Asian plant. In November 2017, the FDA warned the public not to use kratom (Mitragyna…

A federal judge in Delaware has overturned a jury’s verdict requiring Gilead Sciences to pay a record $2.54 billion because its hepatitis C drugs sofosbuvir (Sovaldi) and ledipasvir/sofosbuvir (Harvoni) infringed a patent held by rival Merck & Company, according to a Reuters report. The verdict had…

Survival from cardiac arrest doubled when a bystander stepped in to apply an automated external defibrillator (AED) before emergency responders arrived, according to new research in the American Heart Association (AHA) journal Circulation. According to the AHA, of the more than 350,000 out-of-hospital…

The FDA has approved pertuzumab (Perjeta, Genetech), in combination with trastuzumab (Herceptin, Genentech) and chemotherapy, for adjuvant treatment of HER2-positive early breast cancer at high risk of recurrence. People should receive the adjuvant pertuzumab-based regimen for one year. The FDA also…

The FDA has approved a lidocaine topical system (ZTlido, Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.), 1.8%, for the relief of pain associated with post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) that Sorrento bills as “a major advancement in analgesics” because of improved adhesion. “ZTlido was designed to solve a problem that…

A one-month antibiotic regimen to prevent active tuberculosis (TB) disease was at least as safe and effective as the standard nine-month therapy for people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, according to the results of a large international clinical trial. Adults and adolescents…

The FDA is removing boxed warnings about asthma-related deaths from the labels of drugs that combine long-acting beta agonists (LABAs) with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) after studies showed such combinations don’t cause more serious asthma-related side effects than ICS treatment alone. However, using…

A new study makes a strong case for the importance of government support for basic research: Federally funded studies contributed to the science that underlies every one of the 210 new drugs approved between 2010 and 2016. Researchers at Bentley University scoured millions of research papers for mentions…

Novartis’s Sandoz division has won FDA approval for a larger dosage of glatiramer acetate injection (Glatopa) for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, ending a costly delay that allowed rival generics makers to beat it to market, according to a Reuters report. The FDA approved a 40-mg/mL injection of…

Updated results from a global clinical trial of the CAR T-cell therapy tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah, Novartis) show that children and young adults continued to show high rates of durable, complete remission of their high-risk form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), according to a study published in…

New research indicates that the prevalence of arthritis in the United States has been substantially underestimated, especially among adults younger than 65 years of age. The findings, published in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatology, indicate that research is needed to better monitor arthritis prevalence…